In reflecting on this past competition season, I recall someone asking me what words of wisdom or what inspirational talk could a cheerleading coach offer to his or her team right before  they go on stage.

 This is a good question.  I have seen a variety of methods: a coach revving up the team to a fever pitch; a coach yelling at his team (obviously, not recommended); a coach warning the squad not to do certain things (also not recommended!); a coach encouraging a group hug; a coach leading the team in prayer. 

So, what works?  Well, in some ways, any of the above methods except yelling and warning can work. 

Yelling or berating or threatening a team is shaming and dispiriting.  That such behavior exists in coaches is alarming and no one (the athletes, parents or other coaches) should put up with it. 

To warn a team to “don’t do this…or whatever you do, remember not to do that…” only encourages the team to remember what they should NOT do instead of what they SHOULD do! The brain hears “don’t do” warnings as instructions so this should be avoided. 

Since each coach is different and each team has its own personality and social culture, it is impossible to create a one-size-fits-all inspirational speech.  I would warn against revving up a team to a big excited frenzy since this may adversely affect focus and precision of technique.  Besides, some athletes perform best when they feel quiet and calm; others do like to get revved up.  So, find out what works best for each cheerleader and then find a routine or ritual that can accommodate everyone. 

Of course everyone hopes to place first but doing so is dependent on so many factors out of your control such as the skill level of the other teams, the time of day you perform and so forth.  What is under your control is attitude so think of what to say that will help your team feel good about each other and the hard work they have put into their routine.  Tell them you are proud of them; tell them that if they perform with love and heart and with a desire to do their best, they will be winners in your eyes.  In other words, help them feel like winners as they march out onto the stage.  If they feel like winners, they will perform like champs.

I have been thinking about writing a post about this topic for a while now and lo and behold, Bill Presson provided a link on Facebook to an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.  The reporter is Karen Kadilac and it appeared in Thursday’s paper. I will be borrowing from this article for my post.

The cheerleading industry can be proud of embracing these special athletes.  How did it begin? Well, Bill Presson, vice-chair of the special-needs committee of the U.S. All-Star Federation, helped develop special-needs cheerleading when he was coach of the Kentucky Elite cheerleading team in 2001.  

Presson reported that, “A parent attending a meeting (of the Kentucky Elite) brought it up and thought it would be a good idea. We introduced it. It became really popular after a lot of people saw it at Cheersport (Nationals) in 2002.”

Cheersport, as those in the cheer industry know, is cheerleading on steroids!  Cheersport plays host to the world’s largest national cheer and dance championships with more than 900 teams participating this year.  This included 21 special-needs teams — the most ever – who competed at the championships Feb. 18-20 in Atlanta.  

Special-needs cheerleading teams have grown in popularity with about 300 gyms sponsoring teams across the nation.   From the Pittsburgh area, these include The Fire and Ice Sparklers from West Mifflin, the Pittsburgh Superstars Shining Stars from Cranberry; Pittsburgh Pride Shine from Canonsburg; Steel City All Stars Zinc from Plum; and the Arcadia Aces Hearts from Chippewa, Beaver County. All have existed for several years.

Special-needs cheerleaders enjoy immense benefits from participating in the sport.  Their self confidence increases, their physical condition improves and they feel a sense of purpose and a feeling of belonging.  All the good stuff we all like to experience!
Read more: Special-needs performers have something to cheer about – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_725226.html#ixzz1FdTUGHpV

Well, I couldn’t resist adding my two cents so after they finished, I told them about power words.

 I’ve written about power words before on this blog but because it’s so important, I’ll repeat it for you now. 

Whenever you create a mind movie of your performance (visualization), think of a word or phrase that captures how you want to feel during the actual performance. 

Some examples are “success” or “focused” or “dynamite.”  Then, when you run your mind movie and while you “see” yourself performing, say your power word to yourself and repeat over and over. 

Finally, at the time of the actual performance, say your power word to yourself to reconnect with the positive feeling from the mind movie. 

The team seemed to like the idea of power words and they then went on to get ready for their performance.  Afterward, one of the cheerleaders came up to me to thank me for the tip.  She said she used the word, “push” and it really helped her to stay focused and perform well. 

This girl (I wish I knew her name!) said the whole team nailed the routine and they were thrilled with their performance. 

Now I can’t take credit for their success.  Clearly this team knew about the power of mental preparation already but adding a power word can take your performance to the next level. 

Want to learn more about how to improve your performance at competitions?  Check out my training program – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions in the Cheer Tools section of this site.

What makes this event especially exciting for me is that I will be handing out some of the awards on Sunday!  What an honor! 

If you’re going to this event, please stop by my Confident Cheerleading booth and say hello! 

Don’t forget to check out my 2 Facebook Pages:  Confident Cheerleading Center and, with Debbie Love – Unlock Cheerleading Mental Blocks!

Now you can!  Varsity All Star is offering a new service – Virtual Critique – to help you maximize your team’s potential!  This service will provide you with some insight on how your team is going to place in the rankings. You can get this feedback from a Varsity All Star consultant who will offer a critique of the required elements, technical skills and creative effects – all before you step onto the competition floor and in front of the Judges!

You might be wondering how this works.  All you have to do is go to the Varsity website and download and complete the Virtual Critique Registration Form and submit your routines on video (DVD or USB) to Varsity All Star. An expert consultant will review your submission and provide written feedback within a few days. 

The investment is $25 per routine video and $10 per safety video. 

If you have any questions, you can email virtualcritique@varsityspirit.com

Are you on Facebook (who isn’t??)?  If you are,  please “like” my Page – Confident Cheerleading Center – http://www.facebook.com/confidentcheerleadingcenter

What impressed me, as a sport psychology coach, was the mental toughness I witnessed. Imagine what it is like to perform in front of thousands of people (plus a huge television audience).  Then imagine what it is like to be in a collapsed pyramid in the first moments of a routine or to fall or to land on your face when you are throwing a full.  What would you do? 

These athletes didn’t miss a beat.  They (most of them anyway) let it go, re-focused, and got back on track and acted as if the problem never happened.  That is a perfect example of mental toughness which includes the ability to let go of mistakes and move on – especially in the heat of the moment. 

As you all know, a cheer routine is only 2 ½ minutes and it moves fast!  Each team member has to be focused and in synch with everyone else. There is no time to pout or feel sorry for yourself. The time to think about the mistake is after the performance.  Then it’s good to reflect on what happened with the intention of identifying what went wrong and creating a plan to fix it. 

Mentally tough athletes are experts at being in the moment. They do not hold on to mistakes because that takes them out of the “now” and puts them “back then” which will undermine any performance. 

It was clear to me that these cheerleaders were trained to know what to do if a mistake was made.  That’s good coaching.  That’s good teamwork!

Congratulations to all of the superb athletes who performed at Worlds! 

Want free Peak Performance Tips?  Look at the upper right side of this blog and insert your full name and email and you will automatically receive (within a few minutes) 10 annotated performance tips!

The International All Star Federation (IASF) and the United States All Star Federation (USASF) only host two competitions a year – The Cheerleading Worlds and The Dance Worlds. The event producers of premier national championships sponsor their best teams to compete at these competitions. In addition, International cheer and dance teams from all over the world may qualify to compete in the applicable Senior or International divisions/categories. 

As you can imagine, this will be quite an event!  I couldn’t resist so I decided to go.  If you are going, please stop by and say hello! I will be at the Inside Cheerleading Magazine booth in the Milk House.  I will also be at the VIP Party on Friday night and the special fashion party on Sunday night sponsored by GK Elite, Twisted Choreography and Cheer Coach and Advisor Magazine!  

But it’s not all about the partying!  Worlds is important because it recognizes cheerleading as a serious world-wide athletic endeavor. 

Of course I will be posting photos!

One of the classes I was scheduled to teach was on Mental Toughness and my travel experience provided a personal lesson for me on that very topic.  Here is what happened – what I refer to as my tutorial on the mental game of flying – in an airplane that is. 

I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning on Friday in order to catch a 6 am flight from Boston to New York (JFK airport).  Then I had to leave that terminal, walk about a mile and go to a different terminal where I had to go through security again.  So far, so good – I even got a walk in! 

The flight from New York was direct to Halifax however when we arrived in the skies above Halifax, we were told the weather had affected visibility so we would have to circle for a while until it cleared up.  Well, it didn’t clear up and the plane was running out of fuel so we had to fly to another city to refuel.  Guess where we ended up?  Boston!  (Which is closer than New York.) 

Once in Boston we refueled but we were not allowed to leave the plane.  We were then told the plane would NOT return to Halifax but instead go back to New York!  Of course by the time we got to New York (around 4:30 pm) there were no more flights out to Halifax that day.  We were re-booked for the next day and told we were on our own in terms of getting a hotel and meals. 

I was asked if I wanted to return to Boston for the night and leave the next morning on a direct flight to Halifax.  I agreed.  The flight to Boston was leaving at 6:30 pm but it was at New York’s other airport – La Guardia!  So I had to take a cab and pray that I would get there in time to make the shuttle back to Boston.  I did make it and met a very nice cab driver in the process. My confused husband graciously picked me up at the airport and took me home where I essentially fell asleep while I ate supper. The next morning I flew out of Boston again – but this time arrived in Halifax on schedule. 

Now, what does this have to do with mental toughness?  Well, mental toughness has to do with maintaining a positive attitude in the face of discomfort or adversity. At any time during my adventure, I could have whined and griped or bemoaned my fate or fretted about the situation.  When I found myself beginning to go there, I reminded myself that this was out of my control and a key tenet of mental toughness is – control the controllables!  The only thing I could control was my attitude so I proceeded to view the experience as an interesting adventure and used the time to read and listen to my i-pod. 

For cheerleading, there is so much that is out of your control – especially at a competition! Still, the most important elements are under your control: your poise, your attitude, your desire to perform well, and your commitment to your mental game. 

Oh – my return flight was delayed due to weather…but that’s another story!

Cheer Expo takes place this coming Saturday and Sunday in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It sounds like it will be a grand time and a busy weekend.  Not only are there the National Cheerleading and Dance Championship Competitions but there is also an Expo/Trade Show for cheerleaders, dancers, gymnasts and of course…their coaches!

It is also a conference for coaches, the athletes and their parents

I will be teaching 9 different workshops over 2 days so I’ll be plenty busy! Here is the line-up of my workshops:

Saturday 10:05

Mental Toughness: The key ingredient to athletic success 

Saturday 12:05

Unlock the Block: How to resolve mental blocks in tumbling 

Saturday 2:05

Sport Psychology: How to use sport psychology techniques to make the most of practice 

Saturday 3:05

The Mental Game of training for competitions 

Saturday 4:05

How to create and use winning visualizations 

Sunday 9:05

Stress Reduction Techniques 

Sunday 11:05

The Mental Game of Safety: How mental game coaching can improve safety 

Sunday 1:05

How to train your brain to get your body to do what you want 

Sunday 3:05

How to identify and change negative thinking

By the way, one of the things I love to do is teach so if you run events like this, please keep me in mind for a keynote speech or a series of workshops.

Focus is the granddaddy of the small differences. It is the most important mental skill that is associated with winning performances.  Developing this skill is essential – not only for cheerleading, but for any endeavor. That’s why I recommend training for focus at all practice sessions way before the actual competition. 

Here are some reasons why focus is so critical: 

• Focus allows you to connect totally with what you are experiencing
• Focus frees you to perform without being disturbed by distracting thoughts
• You will learn better and faster when you are focused
• Where your focus goes, everything else follows

 If a cheerleader is proficient in his or her skills (technically and physically) and makes a mistake in execution, it is likely due to a focus problem.  Either the cheerleader is focusing inward (with thoughts such as “I hope I can do this…”) which happens with anxiety or is distracted by external factors. 

Managing distraction is a skill that can be developed and that should be developed.  More on that soon! 

Speaking of competitions, have you seen my training program?  It’s called The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions.  It’s a 2-CD audio program with a 40 page workbook.  You can order the digital version for less.  Order either one and I’ll give you a free one-hour consultation!